Catechists and evangelizers before Christ crucified in St. Michael’s parish in Gainesville, part of the archdiocese of Atlanta.

Atlanta, August 15, 2007. From July 9 to 14, the first intensive formation week for catechists and evangelizers was held in St. Michael’s parish in Gainesville, which is part of the archdiocese of Atlanta. The course, organized by the Full-time Evangelizers program, was given in Spanish and in English for approximately 100 participants. At the archdiocese’s request, the Full-time Evangelizers program will also be providing the formation program to prepare 11 parishes for an upcoming archdiocesan-wide event next December 12: the crowning of Our Lady of Guadalupe as Queen of the Archdiocese.

The first intensive formation week for catechists and evangelizers began with a retreat centered on love for Christ, the Church, and souls.

Juan José Hernández, a religious of the Legionaries of Christ, directed the meditations for English speakers, while Bernardo Osorio, a consecrated man of the Regnum Christi Movement and director of the Pontifical Catechetical Institute School of the Faith, served the Spanish-speakers. There was excellent teamwork with the diocese as 3 members of the archdiocese and 2 consecrated members worked together to give the courses. Fr. Fabio Sotelo, the parish priest, was also actively involved in motivating and supporting the participants in the course.

At the end of

	Spanish-speaking evangelizers in one of the formation sessions.

the course, the full-time evangelizers presented a new formation program to be used by the Atlanta parishes in preparation for the upcoming crowning of Our Lady of Guadalupe as Queen of the Archdiocese. St. Michael’s is one of 11 parishes that will play a key role in the upcoming ceremony. The apostolate of the Pilgrim Queen of the Family was also presented as an integral part of the preparation for the crowning. Both of these contributions came about when the archdiocese of Atlanta asked Alejandro Pinelo, the director of the Full-time Evangelizers, to be part of the committee planning the crowning ceremony.

The diocese of Atlanta is relatively new (established in 1962) and does not yet have a department of evangelization or a school for the formation of catechists, so the diocesan directors of religious education were grateful for the formation offered by the Full-time Evangelizers. The course ended with more than 120 participants, since more people joined in as the week progressed. This experience begins a new process of evangelization in the archdiocese, and marks the foundation of the first School of the Faith in Atlanta.

The following is an article originally published in the Atlanta diocesan newsletter.

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Our mission, to evangelize. . .

There is nothing more important in our lives as Christians than to live in Christ and to look

	Formation course participants during Mass.

for God’s desires sharing his love with others. Our Church in Atlanta is experiencing a great springtime and we all need to be part of this special mission.

As our beloved John Paul II said, “I sense that the moment has come to commit all of the Church´s energies to a new evangelization and to the mission ad gentes. No believer in Christ, no institution of the Church can avoid this supreme duty: to proclaim Christ to all peoples.” Redemptoris missio, Ioannes Paulus PP. II

Our commitment as Catholics is to help Christ in the mission to redeem the world and spreading the message of love to all those who are waiting for it. Christ needs all of us to collaborate in the mission, but we can only do so by knowing, loving and spreading our faith.

Following these directives, Full Time Lay Missionaries or Evangelizadores de tiempo completo organized an Intensive Week Formation course for Catechists and Evangelizers at St. Michael Catholic Church in Gainesville, GA. Fr Fabio Sotelo, the Pastor encouraged the catechists to attend the course in order to start an on going formation for all those who are part of the evangelization process. His love for Christ and leadership helped us to fulfill this commitment.

Cara McLaughlin, Director of Religious Education at the parish, did a great job gathering together all those involved in the parish. Thanks Cara for your great spirit! Special mention to the great team of Religious Education from the Archdiocese of Atlanta, Lisa Eberhardt and Kersti O’farrell for their great participation.

We give thanks to the ECYD coworkers who helped with childcare for more than 45 kids daily! Thanks as well to Bernardo Osorio, Director of

	The catechists and evangelizers renew their baptismal promises and their desire to proclaim the Kingdom of Christ.

School of the Faith and Br. Juan Jose Hernandez, L.C. for their great job with the spiritual retreat.

Starting with a day retreat, 100 catechists and evangelizers attended the course from July 9 to 14 having a deep and wonderful experience of Christ. Both English and Spanish tracks were successful. At the end, we all commited to work for the Crowning of Our Lady of Guadalupe being the guardians for Our Lady who is going to visit all the families at the parish...

Still, there is much more to do.  The goal is to get involved the whole community in the New Evangelization of this great Church. 

Alejandro Pinelo
Director of Evangelizadores de Tiempo Completo